Word.ws English Dictionary

teredo

teredo noun: a mollusc of the genus Teredo, especially of species Teredo navalis.

Noun

teredo (plural teredos or teredoes)

  1. A mollusc of the genus Teredo, especially of species Teredo navalis.
    • Meet fell Teredo, as he mines the keel / With beaked head, and break his lips of steel […].1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 123
    • No timber that would stand the exposure to water as well as the ravages of white ants and the teredo, could be found.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 272
    Synonyms:
    shipworm, copperworm

Synonyms of teredo

Forms of teredo

pluralteredos
pluralteredoes

Origin of teredo

From Latin terēdō (“woodworm”), from Ancient Greek τερηδών (terēdṓn, “wood-worm”). Compare Ancient Greek: τέρην (térēn, “smooth, gentle”).

Words that rhyme with teredo

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about teredo

What does teredo mean?
Teredo means a mollusc of the genus Teredo, especially of species Teredo navalis.
What part of speech is teredo?
Teredo is a noun.
What is the plural of teredo?
The plural of teredo is teredos.

Words near teredo in the dictionary

  1. terebrids
  2. teredine
  3. teredines
  4. teredinid
  5. teredinids
  6. teredo
  7. teredoes
  8. teredos
  9. terefa
  10. terefah
  11. Teregova

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: teredo (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “teredo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teredo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.